Indigenous Peoples Education

Concept of IPs

Etymology

Indigena (Latin) meaning native or original inhabitant

Definition

 originating in a particular region or country ( webster dictionary)

 a generic term that refers to tribes, first peoples/nations, aboriginals, ethnic groups, Adivasi,
janajati, hunter-gatherers, nomads, hill people (indigenous peoples coalition of the
world)
 United Nations system body developed a modern understanding of the term Indigenous
People
o Self – identification
o Historical continuity
o Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
o Distinct social, economic, and political systems
o Distinct language, culture, and beliefs
o Form non-dominant groups of society
o resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as
distinctive peoples and communities
o inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and
the environment
o living on their lands before settlers came from elsewhere

IDENTITY OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

 practice unique traditions

 holders of unique languages, knowledge systems, and beliefs and possess invaluable
knowledge of practices for the sustainable management of natural resources
 lack of political representation and participation, economic marginalization and poverty, lack
of access to social services, and discrimination

CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

 practice a “traditional” subsistence strategy

 distinctive “customary laws” and culture and religions and worldview
 strong sense of identity
 original inhabitants / autochthony
 conquered/minority/oppressed
 non – white
 isolation: living in extreme climates
 self-defined
 more connected with the environment
 globally allied/ members of transnational advocacy networks
  less materialistic and market-oriented
 mobile
 perceived as exotic, primitive, backward by others
 Living in a distinct territory

THREATS FACED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

 Nuclear testing
 appropriation of land due to urbanization, roads, tourism, and development
 extractive industries
 Dam construction
 free market policies
 Drug trafficking/addiction, and alcoholism
 Diseases
 War and genocide
 environmental damage by corporations or states or other institutions
 propaganda, media passing on erroneous information
 deleterious government policies
 forced assimilation
 migration
 Climate or environment change
 Language death

EXAMPLES of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

ASIA

Ainu of Japan

- called Hokkaido “Ainu Moshiri” (“Land of the Ainu”)

- original occupation was hunting, foraging and fishing,

- mainly lived along Hokkaido’s warmer southern coast and traded with the Japanese

- after the Meiji Restoration (about 150 years ago), people from mainland Japan started
emigrating to Hokkaido

- have light skin, a stout frame, deep-set eyes with a European shape, and thick, wavy hair

Assyrians of the Middle East

- comprise a distinct ethno-religious group in Iraq, although official Iraqi statistics consider them
to be Arabs

- descendants of ancient Mesopotamian peoples, Assyrians speak Aramaic and belong to one of
four churches: the Chaldean (Uniate), Nestorian, Jacobite or Syrian Orthodox, and the Syrian
Catholic.

Kazakhs of Russia
 - descendants of the ancient Turkic Kipchak tribes and the medieval Mongolic tribes

- generally classified as Turco-Mongol cultural group

Uygur of China

- alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs,

- a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central
and East Asia

- recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China

Tibetans of China

- composed of a number of related ethnic groups sharing linguistic and cultural similarities.

- Some of these include the Ü-Tsang of Central Tibet, the tent-dwelling Drokpa nomads of the high
plateau and the Khambas

- may number anywhere between 5 million and 7 million people in Tibet and the neighboring
provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan.

- According to the official 2010 Census, Tibetans comprise roughly 90.5 per cent of the population
of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), or around 3 million Tibetans, with Han Chinese making
up 8.17 per cent

The Miao and Hmong of southern China, Laos, and Thailand

- Hmong people are an ethnic group that lives throughout East and Southeast Asia.

- majority of the Hmong live in China, where they are known as the "Miao", while significant
Hmong populations also live in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and the United States.

The Shan and Karen peoples of Burma /Myanmar

- Karen come from the country of Myanmar formerly known as Burma

- Karen are an ethnic group who have resided in Burma for over two thousand years and were one
of the first inhabitants of the region. Many of the Karen have fled Burma due to religious and
ethnic persecution by the government

- 'Shan' is a generic term for all Tai-speaking peoples within Myanmar (Burma)

The Chakma of Pakistan

- one of the major tribes of Tripura . Chakmas are known to be a tribe of South-East Asia

- first migrated to Arakan Hill of Myanmar and then Chittagong Hill tracts of Tripura

- A major part of them however migrated to Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh in course of time
from their original home land

- Chakma derives from the Sanskrit word sakthimaha, which means powerful and great
The Kurds of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and parts of the former Soviet Union

- an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which
spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria

- Homeland for the Kurdish people is the Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges of the Middle East
known as Kurdistan (“place of the Kurds”). The area overlaps with Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and
parts of the former Soviet Union.

- Kurds refer to the area of Kurdistan located in Turkey as “Northern Kurdistan;” in the area of Iran
as “Eastern Kurdistan;” in Iraq as

- “Southern Kurdistan;” and in Syria as “Western Kurdistan.”

- They derive their collective culture and personality from life on these 10,000 feet massifs and
make claim to this region long before the Arabs entered Mesopotamia and 3,000 years before
the Turks arrived in Anatolia.

- Like the Persians, Kurds are of Indo-European origin and linked ethnically and historically with
much of Persian history.

- Kurds today have no official country, though they are said to be one of the largest and oldest
ethnic groups in the world … and the largest group of ethnic people without a country

AFRICA

Kung San of the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Berbers of Morocco

- simple foragers

-Nomadic

-Comprise small bands of related families between 40 – 100 people

- San peoples who live mostly on the western edge of the Kalahari desert, Ovamboland (northern
Namibia and southern Angola), and Botswana

Hadzabe of Tanzania

- adza, or Hadzabe (Wahadzabe in Swahili), is a Tanzanian indigenous ethnic group mostly based in
the southwest Karatu District of the Arusha Region

- one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes on Earth

- Known for shunning material possessions and social hierarchy, the Hadza roam as needed to find
game, tubers, and wild berries

Maasai in East Africa

- a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.

- They are a member of the Nilo-Sahara family of languages related to the Nuer, Kalenjin and
Dinka
 - Maasai community is internationally known for their distinctive culture, rituals, ‘high jumping
dance’, custom dress, and being courageous warriors

Bantu and other ethnic minorities in Somalia

- a general label for over 300 ethnic groups in Africa

- descendants of many Bantu ethnic groups primarily from the Niger-Congo region of Africa (Gure,
2018).

- Bantu and other ethnic minorities in Somalia

- a general label for over 300 ethnic groups in Africa

- Brought to Somalia in the 19th century by Arab slave traders, Bantus endured centuries of
oppression in the horn of Africa as agricultural laborers

Ogoni in Nigeria

- minority ethnic people who live in the Western Niger Delta Region of southern Nigeria

- Nigeria's 100 to 120 million people

- During the 1970s, Ogoniland, or the Ogoni Nation, became part of the Rivers State of Nigeria.
There are approximately 500,000 Ogoni who represent less than 0.05 percent of Nigeria's 100 to
120 million people

Tuareg people of Algeria, Libya, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso

- inhabit the Saharan regions of North Africa - Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and Burkina Faso

- Tuareg is an Arabic term meaning abandoned by God.

- call themselves Imohag, translated as free men. No one knows the true origin of the Tuareg,
where they came from or when they arrived in the Sahara

- Sahrawi of the Western Sahara

AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA

- Maori of New Zealand

- also known as Polynesian indigenous tribes

- Maori people are well known for their distinctive traditional full-body and facial tattooing

- Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, they settled here over 700 years ago.
They came from Polynesia by waka (canoe)

Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia

- among the first humans to migrate out of Africa, across the coastlines of India and Asia until
reaching the shores of Australia
 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are not one homogenous group – they are a diverse group
of hundreds of nations (or cultural groups) and clans within those nations

Saami of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark

- Indigenous people of the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and large parts of the Kola
Peninsula and they live in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia

- an indigenous ethnic group, endemic to the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the
Kola Peninsula in Russia

North and Central America

American Indians

- American Indian or Alaska Native” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples
of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or
community attachment

Inuit and Aleutians of Canada

- Indigenous people of the Arctic

- The word Inuit means "the people" in the Inuit language of Inuktitut. The singular of Inuit is Inuk

Inuit and Aleutians of Canada

- historically lived throughout the Aleutian Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western part
of the Alaska Peninsula, with an estimated population of around 25,000 prior to European
contact.

- First Nations and Metis of Canada

- First Nation” is a term used to describe Aboriginal peoples of Canada who are ethnically neither
Métis nor Inuit.

First Nations and Metis of Canada

- This term came into common usage in the 1970s and '80s and generally replaced the term
“Indian,” although unlike “Indian,” the term “First Nation” does not have a legal definition

South and Latin America

- Mayans of Guatemala and Mexico

- probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica

- Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C.,

Mayans of Guatemala and Mexico

- probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica

- Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C.,

Mayans of Guatemala and Mexico

- probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica

- Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C.,

Aymaras of Bolivia and other Indians of South America

- a native culture that lives in the Andean highlands, a plateau known as Altiplano. With a
population of about three million, they are distributed between Bolivia, Southern Peru, and,
Northern Chile

- a native culture that lives in the Andean highlands, a plateau known as Altiplano. With a
population of about three million, they are distributed between Bolivia, Southern Peru, and,
Northern Chile